Running an M350 RTK with L1 for utility corridor work. DJI just dropped the L2 and it's tempting but not cheap. Anyone made the upgrade? Is the accuracy improvement real or marketing?
We're mostly doing transmission line ROW surveys - vegetation management, encroachment, bare earth under canopy. L1 has been... okay. Accuracy under trees is hit or miss.
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Sign inMade the switch 3 months ago. Short answer: yes, worth it.
Longer answer: The point density improvement is significant. L2 is 240 pts/m² vs L1's 100. Under canopy you actually see the difference. More returns means better ground classification.
Accuracy wise, DJI claims 4cm vertical vs L1's 5cm but real world I'm seeing more like 3-4cm on checkpoints consistently. L1 was more like 5-6cm for us.
The RGB camera is also better integrated. Single flight gets you good LiDAR AND good ortho instead of needing two flights.
Just want to add - make sure you're running PPK with LiDAR. RTK drops under canopy are brutal. Ask me how I know. L2 won't fix bad position data.
Haven't upgraded yet but been following this closely. The consensus from the Facebook groups is L2 is legit, not just incremental. The repetition rate jump from 240kHz to 480kHz is real.
That said, if your L1 is meeting your accuracy specs, maybe hold off. L3 will probably come eventually...
For what it's worth, we're still running L1 and outsourcing the truly dense vegetation to a contractor with a higher-end system (RIEGL). L2 closes the gap but for serious forestry work you might still want more.
Depends on your client's accuracy requirements really.
@UtilityUma That's exactly what I needed to hear. The under-canopy performance is our pain point. We're always fighting with ground classification in the vegetated sections. If L2 actually improves that, it's probably worth the upgrade cost for us.